Ipswich plan promotes local power
By Sally Kuhn / Ipswich@wickedlocal.com
Mar 10, 2019
The Select Board considered a plan drawn up by the Ipswich Electric Light Department to save the future of the town’s power plant at the Select Board meeting on Monday, March 4.
The plan would set the Electric Light Department on a breakeven path by 2020 and would dedicate the plant toward carbon-free generation, integration of energy storage, batteries and/or decommissioning the plant.
The plan would also reduce regulatory requirements and oversight.
With this plan, the ELD is expected to break even by 2020 to 2022.
Behind-the-meter operations gives the ELD the right to use the fuels of its choice, natural gas instead of diesel, for example.
According to the plan, ELD Director Jon Blair explained, the light department would cut ties to a regional energy operation, ISO New England, and set up its own behind-the-meter operations -- a renewable energy generating facility that produces power intended for on-site use.
ISO New England, according to its website, designs runs, and oversees the region’s wholesale electricity market.
The Select Board will convene another hearing on the subject next Monday, March 11, and then vote on whether to remove Ipswich from ISO New England. The town must file its intentions by March 15. The Select Board hopes citizens with knowledge on the subject will attend.
The ELD powers the town through the procurement and distribution of electricity and was created in 1903 to pump water for the Dow Reservoir and power Ipswich’s street lights. The community owns the light department, a not for profit agency. Changes in the energy market threaten the continuation of the town’s plant.
Blair explained that the ELD would move away from the forward-capacity market and delist from ISO New England to start its own behind-the-meter operations by June 2020.
ISO New England developed the forward-capacity market in 2008 to encourage power plants to develop the capacity to run during peak periods, when the grid was highly constrained. The ELD did so. Since 2015, the plant has netted over $2 million and the light department gave the money back to the ratepayers.
However in 2018, ISO New England developed more stringent requirements and penalties for the forward-capacity market. The compensation dropped from approximately $900,000 in 2018 to approximately $400,000 in 2019 and is projected to go to less than $100,000 by 2026.
The new ELD plan would reduce the cost of fuel by having ELD generate its own power during peak-load periods, instead of buying it from the National Grid, when the fuel is most expensive.
Through savings from the peak-load costs, the overall price of Ipswich’s fuel will come down.
The plan is to fire up Ipswich’s generators for two or three hours during the peak-load period, which runs from late afternoon to early evening.
The light department will get information on peak-load times from the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company and will know how much staffing will be needed during those times during 30 minutes before and after peak load.
Blair told the Select Board that many communities were creating their own peak-load power. The town of Sheffield, he said, has rented a diesel generator to do so. He thought the likelihood of National Grid of stopping Ipswich was low.